Œdĭpus

, a son of Laius king of Thebes and Jocasta. As being descended from Venus by his father’s side, Œdip us was born to be exposed to all the dangers and the calamities which Juno could inflict upon the posterity of the godde of beauty. Laius the father of Œdip us was informed by the oracle, as soon as he married Jocasta, that he must perish by the hands of his son. Such dreadful intelligence awakened his fears, and to prevent the fulfilling of the oracle, he resolved never to approach Jocasta; but his solemn resolutions were violated in a fit of intoxication. The queen became pregnant, and Laius, still intent to stop this evil, ordered his wife to destroy her child as soon as it came into the world. The mother had not the courage to obey, yet she gave the child as soon as born to one of her domestics, with orders to expose him on the mountains. The servant was moved with pity, but to obey the commands of Jocasta, he bored the feet of the child, and suspended him with a twig by the heels to a tree on mount Cithæron, where he was soon found by one of the shepherds of Polybus king of Corinth. The shepherd carried him home; and Peribœa the wife of Polybus, who had no children, educated him as her own child, with maternal tenderne . The accomplishments of the infant, who was named Œdip us, on account of the swelling of his feet ( οἰδεω tumeo , ποδες pedes ), soon became the admiration of the age. His companions envied his strength and his addre ; and one of them, to mortify his rising ambition, told him he was an illegitimate child. This raised his doubts; he asked Peribœa, who, out of tenderne , told him that his suspicions were ill-founded. Not satisfied with this, he went to consult the oracle of Delphi, and was there told not to return home, for if he did, he must nece arily be the murderer of his father, and the husband of his mother. This answer of the oracle terrified him; he knew no home but the house of Polybus, therefore he resolved not to return to Corinth, where such calamities apparently attended him. He travelled towards Phocis, and in his journey, met in a narrow road Laius on a chariot with his arm-bearer. Laius haughtily ordered Œdip us to make way for him. Œdip us refused, and a contest ensued, in which Laius and his arm-bearer were both killed. As Œdip us was ignorant of the quality and of the rank of the men whom he had just killed, he continued his journey, and was attracted to Thebes by the fame of the Sphynx. This terrible monster, which Juno had sent to lay waste the country [ See: ♦ Sphinx ], resorted in the neighbourhood of Thebes, and devoured all those who attempted to explain, without succe , the enigmas which he proposed. The calamity was now become an object of public concern, and as the succe ful explanation of an enigma would end in the death of the Sphynx, Creon, who at the death of Laius had ascended the throne of Thebes, promised his crown and Jocasta to him who succeeded in the attempt. The enigma proposed was this: What animal in the morning walks upon four feet, at noon upon two, and in the evening upon three? This was left for Œdip us to explain; he came to the monster and said, that man, in the morning of life, walks upon his hands and his feet; when he has attained the years of manhood, he walks upon his two legs; and in the evening, he supports his old age with the a istance of a staff. The monster, mortified at the true explanation, dashed his head against a rock and perished. Œdip us ascended the throne of Thebes, and married Jocasta, by whom he had two sons, Polynices and Eteocles, and two daughters, Ismene and Anti gone. Some years after, the Theban territories were visited with a plague; and the oracle declared that it should cease only when the murderer of king Laius was banished from Bœotia. As the death of Laius had never been examined, and the circumstances that attended it never known, this answer of the oracle was of the greatest concern to the The bans; but Œdip us, the friend of his people, resolved to overcome every difficulty by the most exact inquiries. His researches were succe ful, and he was soon proved to be the murderer of his father. The melancholy discovery was rendered the more alarming when Œdip us considered, that he had not only murdered his father, but that he had committed incest with his mother. In the exce of his grief he put out his eyes, as unworthy to see the light, and banished himself from Thebes, or, as some say, was banished by his own sons. He retired towards Attica, led by his daughter Anti gone, and came near Colonus, where there was a grove sacred to the Furies. He remembered that he was doomed by the oracle to die in such a place, and to become the source of prosperity to the country in which his bones were buried. A me enger upon this was sent to These us king of the country, to inform him of the resolution of Œdip us. When These us arrived, Œdip us acquainted him, with a prophetic voice, that the gods had called him to die in the place where he stood; and to show the truth of this he walked, himself, without the a istance of a guide, to the spot where he must expire. Immediately the earth opened, and Œdip us disappeared. Some suppose that Œdip us had not children by Jocasta, and that the mother murdered herself as soon as she knew the incest which had been committed. His tomb was near the Areopagus, in the age of Pausanias. Some of the ancient poets represent him in hell, as suffering the punishment which crimes like his seemed to deserve. According to some, the four children which he had were by Euriganea the daughter of Periphas, whom he married after the death of Jocasta. Apollo dor us , bk. 3 , ch. 5 .— Hyginus , fable 66, . — Euripi des , Phœnician Women , . — Sophocles , Œdip us Tyrannus & Colonus , Anti gone, . — Hesiod , Theogony , li. 1 .— Homer , Ody ey , bk. 11 , ch. 270 .— Pausanias , bk. 9 , ch. 5 , . — Statius , Thebaid , bk. 8 , li. 642 .— Seneca , Œdip us .— Pindar , Olympian , ch. 2 .— Diodorus , bk. 5 .— Athenæus , bks. 6 & 10. ♦ ‘Sphynx’ replaced with ‘Sphinx’ to match listing